Drug and alcohol dependence
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Jul 2021
Shorter outpatient wait-times for buprenorphine are associated with linkage to care post-hospital discharge.
Inpatient addiction consult services (ACS) lower barriers to accessing medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), however not every patient recommended for MOUD links to outpatient care. We hypothesized that fewer days between discharge date and outpatient appointment date was associated with improved linkage to buprenorphine treatment among patients evaluated by an ACS. ⋯ For hospitalized patients with OUD evaluated for initiating MOUD, same- and next-day appointments are associated with increased odds of linkage to outpatient MOUD care post-discharge compared to waiting two or more days.